Legato Playing Techniques

Okay, then let's take a look at another technique, or perhaps I should say series of techniques. We're going to look at legato playing now.

What is Legato?

If you ever hear the term legato, it refers to a smooth way of playing. For guitar players, this means that instead of picking all the notes of a phrase, we're going to use hammer-ons and pull-offs to play the same phrase, achieving a really smooth sound.

The Exercise

The exercise I'm going to show you is just on one string. It's a great exercise not only for building a good legato technique but for developing strength and independence in your left hand as well. This is actually a Paul Gilbert lick. He is more known for his alternate picking techniques than his legato, although he's phenomenal at both. We've got him to thank for this lick.

Starting Position

• It really doesn't matter where we play this on the guitar, but let's start down here in A minor.
• We're going to begin on the E string with the little finger on the eighth fret.
• The only time we'll pick a note is to start this lick off, once we've played the C note.

Technique Breakdown

The right hand doesn't do anything other than keep the other strings quiet while we do our legato thing with our left hand.

1. Pick the C note.
2. Pull off to the first finger on A (fifth fret).
3. Hammer on to B (seventh fret), back up to the original note, and then pull off down those three notes.

So the whole phrase is:

• Watch my right hand; it only starts the phrase and does nothing else after that.
• I'm using my legato technique, focusing on the accuracy of a hammer-on and the elastic band effect of a pull-off.

For instance, when pulling off between my little finger and my third finger, I'm pulling off down the side to release the fretted note (which is the B note).

Building Speed

This is a fantastic little lick that you can build up speed with quickly.

• If you loop this exercise, you'll start to feel the area between your little finger and your third finger work.
• This area is quite demanding on both fingers.

Tip: Initially, if you're new to legato playing, you might find yourself putting a lot of energy into the strings. Concentrate on relaxing your left hand as you speed up, and that speed will come.

Gradual Increase

Let's gradually start off that lick and increase the speed:

• It's really important to keep the lower strings nice and quiet with the palm of your right hand.
• Set up quite a lot of gain here; we'll get this sound gradually speeding up.

There's no picking bolt here! You can achieve impressive speed with practice; during our exercise, we only picked the very first note, with the rest generated from legato technique in the left hand.

Variations

This is a great phrase, and you can change the order of the notes. You might want to work your second finger a bit more, maybe replace it with a B flat or alternate between the two.

It's a really flashy lick that isn't that challenging once you develop the fundamental hammer-on and pull-off technique and can relax your left hand.

Incorporating Into Scales

The next step is incorporating this technique with the odd picked notes so you can cross through strings.

• For example, practice the major scale:
  • Normally, you'd practice this picked, but try it legato:
    • Pick, hammer on.
    • Pick, hammer on.
    • Hammer on.
    • Pick, hammer on.

This creates a completely different tone. You can do the same on the way back down.

Conclusion

These exercises are ways to incorporate legato playing into what you already know to help develop your techniques further. Legato is one of the most significant techniques on guitar, symbolized by the little bracket between two notes in the tab:

• Ascending numbers: Hammer-on.
• Descending numbers: Pull-off.

So have a go at that little practice lick; I think it's a great one to work on.

Now, let's have a look at the next technique!